Question:
Okay, this will prove how paranoid of a chinnie mom I am! Candy was pawing at her mouth a bit, just for a day so I rushed her to the vet because I though it was maloculsion (sp?). My vet took a good look and said nothing was wrong and her teeth are fine, a liitle to white so I got some calcium vitamins for her. My vet thought it was funny because I thought it was an emergency so he gave me a FREE visit. He's knows me well and knows I worry too much, LOL
So my question is -- Is it normal for a chin to paw at there mouth a bit?


Answer:
The only time I have had a chin do that is when they had something in their throat, otherwise they usually don't paw at their mouth. Did the vet look in the back of her throat?


Answer:
Jiggy paws when she smells something she doesn't like or when she tasted something yucky.


Answer:
I have seen my chins paw at their mouths when eating something sticky...like a really fresh raisin or craisin. I think it gets stuck in their teeth.


Answer:
When Saltine first came to live with us she was incredibly thin and we wanted to boost up her weight. She didn't like the nutri-cal, so I tried to trick her by putting some on a raisin. She ended up dropping the half-eaten raisin and pawing at her mouth. She was NOT impressed with me.


Answer:
Laurie -- yes he checked her whole mouth out. He did thise trick where he stuck a pen accross her teeth to keep her mouth open and used some kind of light to check. He did the same thing with Silly when he saw Silly's deformed mouth, LOL. She stopped pawing though. I think you guys are right about some stickey foods getting stuck in there teeth. We can floss, they can't, LOL. So everything is fine and I think I over reacted AGAIN!


Answer:
I've got an old lady here (12 years old) who is not very big on treats (I guess that's a good thing). Anytime I try to give her one (other than a raisin or dried apple) she takes one sniff and starts pawing at her mouth and gets all annoyed. Her son (6 years old) does the same thing only he has a larger variety of treats that he likes.
Most of my chins do ti when I give them something sticky.


Answer:
Alison - a 12 year old chin, wow now that's impressive! Mostly you hear about young or middle aged chin - do you have any pics of her?
I thought the pawing was normal because I do notice everyone pawing after treats, especially with Nutrical and Petramalt. Im just a worry wart, LOL She must have had a treat stuck in her tooth or something.


Answer:
Here she is. She weighed in at 731g yesterday. She and three of her sons have been with me since 1998. She lost her mate almost two years ago and for a while I thought I might lose her too because she was so deppressed and lost a ton of weight, but she's been back to normal for some time now and is doing great.


Answer:
she's beautiful!